


one touch (but you felt enough)

by hopelessrdj



Series: i'm yours to keep and yours to lose [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Falling In Love, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23840788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelessrdj/pseuds/hopelessrdj
Summary: Tony knew he was in love. He was ready to scream it out from the rooftop for all the world to hear. But observing Stephen realising his feelings silently was a whole new kind of experience.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: i'm yours to keep and yours to lose [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1708741
Comments: 12
Kudos: 96





	one touch (but you felt enough)

Sometimes it bothered Tony, how they didn’t say their “I love you”s yet. It’s not like he didn’t feel this way toward Stephen. He did, they’ve been together for one and a half year now it’s just that the timing was never right.

Sometimes he wonders if Stephen feels the same way. If he’s ready to hear it from Tony or say it himself. But then something minor happens and he knows. There’s no proof to back up the feeling but Tony is sure he can’t just imagine it.

He feels it in the smallest things. How even when he drives he insists on holding Tony’s hand and how during the small talk he keeps looking at him to make sure he’s not bored, as if he could ever get tired of listening to his boyfriend rambling.

And how he always tries to find time for them despite being busy. Like when he came back from the internship and even though he was tired he picked Tony up to go on a coffee date at midnight. How he memorised his order and his favourite place.

Tony feels the electricity running through them as their shoulders brush when they sit on a park bench and Stephen asks him to look up and proceeds to tell him about the stars they see and he’s mesmerised when he sees them all reflected in his blueish irises when he looks at him that night.

Tony hears it in the domestic silence they share when they’re both studying for exams too tired and stressed to even talk but still sitting in the same room enjoying each others comforting presence

Even with the lights out, late in the night he can feel the love in small reassuring touches. In the hugs and cuddles and fingers running through his hair after a nightmare. In soft spoken words whispered into his ear when Stephen thinks he’s asleep and he can’t hear him.

Then there’s the warm feeling he gets each day when he wakes up to the smell of fresh coffee and warm breakfast and the tiny good morning kiss they share in their spacious kitchen. Stephen smiles each time when he sees him enter the room wearing nothing but one of his hoodies that are now more Tony’s but he doesn’t really mind it.

It’s the first time in forever when he feels safe. Secure. Loved. Like he could simply let go of everything that has been bothering him for years all his fears and ghosts and the idea of not being good enough. Because on every step of the way he’s being proved that for Stephen he’s more than enough and he can never truly tell him how thankful he is.

And Tony loves everything about him too. How sometimes he can stop and kiss him in the middle of a sidewalk just because he felt like it. How they fight but it’s always followed with a talk because he hates leaving things unresolved and how he always takes his time to understand Tony’s point of view.

He enjoys the slow dancing, out of rhythm with barely audible music, in the middle of their living room or the balcony if the night is warm enough, his head placed firmly on Stephen’s chest where he can listen to his heartbeat, louder and faster than he expects it to be.

And he thinks about it all the time now and he suddenly understands why all his friends were so insistent on finding their significant other. Why each time he would come back home for holidays Maria would ask him if there’s anyone that caught his eye on the university and when can she meet them. 

One day he looks around their things and notices the shelf Stephen keeps his pictures on. It’s been months since they decided to move it to the main bedroom and even add some more of them in the living room.

But this one was special. It held all of the pictures he brought with himself from his previous apartment. Some showing a pretty dark haired girl, Donna, Tony knew that already, unwrapping gifts under the Christmas tree, some were awkward pictures of her and Stephen cut in such inconvenient way that he could immediately say that on the missing part he would have found another person.

Some showed a beautiful woman, most likely in her forties that he recognised as Stephen’s mom. Others were of his first year at university with Christine by his side, both smiling widely. A few featured his dog Bats that he had back in Nebraska and whom he loved so much he almost majored in veterinary because of him.

But there were a few that weren’t there before and he caught himself staring at them for longer than he should. A picture he’s never seen before. Of them kissing in the middle of their living room all those months ago, captured by Christine if Pepper being in the frame could be any indication. Their first important shared memory. He was suddenly so happy to know someone was thoughtful enough to photograph it for them.

Then another one of the six of them enjoying the long weekend at the beach with everyone looking into the camera apart from Stephen himself, who was looking down at Tony with a fond smile. Then one more, that Tony basically forced him to take of them in the planetarium in the prettiest exhibition he’s ever seen.

And knowing that those memories were important enough to frame them and put alongside his family made Tony realise how deeply in love he was with the man.

Another wave of realisation his him a few nights later. He wasn’t expecting anything unusual to happen until he feels Stephen wake up and sit up

“You ok babe?” he asks, half asleep trying to see his boyfriends face only in the dim light of the street lamp falling through the curtain

“You’re my best friend, You know that right?” he says with a serious expression but extreme amount of fondness in his eyes and Tony knew immediately what it was. Stephen Strange was in love.

And in that moment he promised himself one thing. One day he will marry this man.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you think, comments and kudos really do keep me.motivated


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